1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to safety closure containers and has particular reference to closures having tamper resistant and tamper evident features. Some of the closures disclosed herein are also child resistant closures in that they tend to prevent children from readily opening the containers.
2. Prior Art
Various safety closures are described in the prior art, such as the safety closures disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,612,322 and 3,693,820. These safety closures comprise a snap on cap held in place on a container by a rotary safety ring which must be aligned with the cap and pushed downwardly away from the cap before one can remove the cap from the container. There is only one angular position in which the rotary ring can be removed from the cap. The ring is locked around a portion of the cap by fingers, which extend from either inside of the ring or from the cap, and which fingers fit into a locking groove formed between the ring and cap. The ring is unlocked by aligning it with the cap in one angular position so that the fingers slide through release grooves in the locking groove when the ring is pulled downwardly away from the cap.
While these safety closures have generally worked well, they are particularly prone to tampering because the consumer has no way of knowing whether the container has been opened or otherwise tampered with. It is an object of this invention to provide closures which are resistant to tampering and provide evidence of tampering.